Richard Ehrlich: Ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Returns

Fugitive Ex-Prime Minister Thaksin
Returns

Bangkok, Thailand
-- After orchestrating a stunning political victory over the
military which ousted him in a 2006 coup, former prime
minister Thaksin Shinawatra returned on Thursday (February
28) from 17 months in self-exile and surrendered to face
corruption charges.

"I and my family have suffered from
injustice," Mr. Thaksin told reporters after arriving in
Bangkok.

Based mostly in London, Mr. Thaksin was an
international fugitive from arrest warrants and tribunals,
but a hero to Thais who overwhelmingly voted for him in
2001, 2003 and 2006.

After his flight from Hong Kong
landed at Bangkok's corruption- plagued Suvarnabhumi
International Airport -- one of several disgraced symbols of
his 2001-2006 government -- Mr. Thaksin lovingly knelt on
the ground.

Thousands of supporters thronged the airport
to cheer his arrival in this Buddhist-majority country.

He
was immediately whisked to the Supreme Court where a hearing
was set for March 12, and he was freed on 250,000 U.S.
dollars in bail.

He then posted 33,000 U.S. dollars in
bail at the Attorney General's Office for another
case.

The two separate cases against Mr. Thaksin, 58, also
target his wife, Pojaman Shinawatra, and could result in 15
years imprisonment.

According to the Supreme Court case,
his wife allegedly purchased government real estate in 2003
at a reduced rate while married to the prime minister.

The
Department of Special Investigation case meanwhile focuses
on the couple's alleged ownership, in 2003, of shares in SC
Asset, a real estate holding company.

Mr. Thaksin's
dramatic return after being deposed in a bloodless coup on
Sept. 19, 2006, follow the footsteps of his wife, who
submitted to the courts on Jan. 8 to defend herself against
corruption charges in the same two cases.

The political
and financial behavior of the billionaire couple, and their
three adult children, fueled divisions in this non-NATO U.S.
ally.

But after the junta allowed a nationwide election on
Dec. 23, Washington restored normal relations with the
elected government, and ties remain strong.

Prime Minister
Samak Sundaravej, who led his newly formed People Power
Party (PPP) to victory, is a close confidant of Mr.
Thaksin.

They share many of the same political allies and
a base which includes a majority of this Southeast Asian
nation's rural poor, who favored Mr. Thaksin's cheap health
care, easy loans, bloody "war on drugs," and other populous,
authoritarian policies.

Mr. Samak and Mr. Thaksin are
widely perceived as political Siamese twins, with Mr.
Thaksin dominating the relationship with his vast fortune,
monopolistic laissez faire strategies, pro-poor enticements,
and political clout.

Mr. Samak, who leads a six-party
coalition government, indicted he would not allow unfair
persecution of Mr. Thaksin.

"His repeated insistence that he will stay clear of
politics has not calmed the nerves of those people who see
him as a divisive figure," the English language daily
said.

Though the December election replaced the junta,
Thailand's new Army Chief Gen. Anupong Paojinda helped other
generals stage the coup.

The coup leaders claimed they
ousted Mr. Thaksin because his allegedly corrupt
administration was threatening to destabilize the country,
and some military officers appeared to support the coup
because they were being replaced by Mr. Thaksin's
favorites.

Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, who led the coup,
stepped down in January expressing regret after his junta
embarrassed Bangkok on the international stage, crippled
Thailand's economy, frightened tourists away, and left the
country divided.

"I didn't want the world community to
condemn us as military dictators," a chastened Gen. Sonthi
said in January.

"Sonthi ran up the white flag," said
Chang Noi, a respected columnist for the Nation
newspaper.

"The total failure of the coup regime to nail
anyone for corruption, is an invitation to plunder with
impunity," Chang Noi wrote.

Both men
promised not to seek revenge against the coup leaders, and
instead restore reconciliation while the justice system
deals with the corruption
cases.

ENDS

************

Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based
journalist who has reported news from Asia since 1978. He is
co-author of "Hello My Big Big Honey!", a non-fiction book
of investigative journalism, and his web page is
http://www.geocities.com/asia_correspondent

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